Page 33 of The Next Mrs Bennet
Rosings Park, Easter 1822
A s she sat on the shaded veranda at Mary and Richard’s estate, Becca smiled as she remembered that the redecorating of both the house at the estate and the renamed Fitzwilliam House on Berkeley Square in Town had taken upwards of six months. The smile was because Mary and Richard had resided at Netherfield Park for a good portion of that time, so even though she was a married woman, Becca and Bennet had the pleasure of Mary’s presence only three miles from Longbourn.
Since Mary and Richard had moved into their redecorated—all traces of the late Catherine’s gaudy, tasteless décor had been removed—and renovated manor house at Rosings Park, they had hosted the family for Easter each subsequent year.
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In the ten years since Mary and Richard married, they had restored Rosings Park to its full potential after they had cleaned up the messes that the late murderess had left them with. In addition to being respected by all of the tenants, of whom the mistress of the estate took prodigious care, Richard had begun a horse breeding programme.
With his knowledge of what the army needed in its horses, he tailored the stock to meet the military’s needs, and within four years of beginning the programme, he had nearly doubled the six thousand pounds per annum his estate was earning.
Mary gave birth to a daughter, Rebecca Beth, called Becky, in August 1813. She was not Becca and Thomas’s first granddaughter or grandchild born, but like all of them, she was treasured by her grandparents and great-grandparents. Two years later, Mary delivered a son and heir. Less than two years thereafter, a second son was born. He was followed by a daughter, the baby of their family, fourteen months after the younger son.
Like both sets of their parents, Mary and Richard came to love and appreciate each other more and more with each passing day of their marriage. They had occasional disagreements, but the resolving of said events was very enjoyable.
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Becca, Thomas, Mama, and Mother were seated on a shaded veranda watching some of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren playing in the park. Mama and Mother were much more frail, as would be expected of ladies who had entered their eighth decade, but were still as sharp as ever, even if they needed to rest more, required more assistance, and moved slower than they used to.
Those in the park were under the watchful eyes of some nursemaids and the ever-vigilant John, Brian, and two more of their men.
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When Elizabeth and Liam had approached her mother and Thomas about employing John and Brian, Becca and Bennet had agreed after ascertaining that the two wanted to be employed by Miss Lizzy and her husband. They did, and they recommended one of the other guards, who had been an officer, to take over command of the remaining Bennet footmen guards.
John Biggs and Brian Johns had travelled to Pemberley after the wedding trip. Elizabeth and Liam had no threats against them, but the latter felt much more secure knowing that one or both were with her when Elizabeth rode across Pemberley’s fields without him. Since the birth of their offspring, the two enormous men would protect the children fiercely, if the need ever arose. The Darcys, like the rest of the extended family, employed as many former officers and soldiers as they could.
Elizabeth gave birth to a son in December 1812, eleven months after her marriage. He was not the first, but rather the second grandchild for Becca and Bennet. Following the Darcy tradition which had given Liam the name Fitzwilliam, the Darcy heir was named Bennet Liam, Ben to friends and family. Three more sons followed Ben, about a year and a half between each one.
Lizzy and Liam despaired they would not have a daughter, but a little more than two years after the fourth son was born, the Darcys were gifted with a daughter. Liam was charmed by his daughter, who looked just like her mama, down to the emerald-green eyes.
Although their stubborn natures occasionally put them on opposite sides of an argument, those cases were few and far between. The Darcys had both wanted a partnership, and they had a true one, not just in name.
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The first Bennet granddaughter, grandchild, to meet her grandparents and great-grandparents was born—in August 1812—to Jane and Andrew. Jane had conceived towards the end of their honeymoon, based on when Georgiana Constance, called Gigi, was born. A little more than a year later, a second daughter joined the family.
Jane had worried she would only bear daughters. Andrew had assured her that it mattered not because if Mary bore a son, then the earldom would continue with a by-blood Fitzwilliam as the future earl.
A little less than two years later Jane’s worries were proved to be groundless when she and Andrew were blessed with a son and heir. Over the next four years, two more sons joined their family.
Even though Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam was still alive and relatively spry, he and his wife had handed the running of Snowhaven and the rest of the properties over to Jane and Andrew. The Earl still attended the sessions in the Lords, but he and his beloved wife, when they were not spending time with their various grandchildren and surrogate ones—all of the Bennet offspring considered them to be grandparents to their children—they lived in the rather spacious dower house at Snowhaven.
Matlock had taken the death of his brother and best friend, the late Duke of Devonshire, very hard when the latter had succumbed to a problem with his heart some two years previously. That had been the impetus for his decision to step back and enjoy whatever remaining time God granted him on the mortal coil.
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Becca looked at her mother sitting next to her. Mama had taken the death of her beloved William extremely hard, and at first, she had only wished to join him in heaven. It was Will, the new duke, Connie, and herself who had brought Mama out of her deep melancholy. They had reminded her that Papa would have been most distressed to see her like that. They assisted their mother to see that her children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren were in need of her limitless love.
It had taken her a month or so, but eventually Becca’s mama had looked at her life with a renewed purpose. She had been determined to remain in deep mourning for a full year, and thereafter she would wear the muted colours of half mourning for the rest of her days, so she would never forget what she had lost.
Detecting some movement, Becca looked up and saw Henry and Maria approaching the group sitting on the veranda.
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Even though for many years Henry had only seen Maria Lucas as the younger sister of his two eldest sisters’ good friend, by the time Maria was nineteen, Henry had fallen in love with her. They had courted, become engaged—much to Sir William’s approbation—and married in April of 1815 when Henry was four and twenty.
The two had begun their married life living in the large and completely rebuilt dower house at Longbourn. A little more than a year after the wedding, a son, Lucas Henry, was born. Lucas was followed by a brother in early 1818 and a sister in late 1819.
Due to Maria and Henry’s expanding family and their having no children at home, Becca and Bennet had insisted their son and daughter-in-law move into Longbourn, and they took the dower house.
Becca smiled as she saw her daughter rub the expanding bump in her belly. Maria was with child again, and the babe would arrive in June or July of the current year.
Thoughts of their children naturally led Becca to consider her two youngest.
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In May of 1815, once Tommy completed his studies at Cambridge…Becca stopped her musings and corrected herself. The year he had entered the university, he had asked to be called Tom, no longer the more youthful appellation of Tommy. By the time Tom graduated, it had become obvious that her youngest son and Giana Darcy were very much in love. He was one and twenty, and she was almost twenty.
Georgiana Darcy had come out at eighteen, and in the following two seasons, she had shown no interest in any man who had attempted to call on her. After Tom’s graduation, he had offered a courtship to Giana. She had been ready for an engagement, as she had been in love with Tom for many years. His parents and her guardians had agreed to a six-month courtship followed by an engagement of the same length.
That way, when they married from Pemberley, Tom was almost three and twenty and Giana one and twenty. By then, Tom was fully in charge of Netherfield Park. Even though it was only deeded to him when he reached the age of five and twenty, he was the master in every sense of the word. When they married in May of 1816, after spending a month at Seaview House—the Darcy's house near Brighton—for a month, Giana became the mistress of Tom’s estate.
Their first child, a son, was born in October of 1817. He was named Liam Thomas. In late 1818 Giana was with child and before the quickening had a miscarriage. She had worried she would have the same problems her late mother had birthing children. Her worries were washed away when a daughter was born in November 1819. Then she delivered a second son in July of 1821. After each delivery, Giana recovered as would be expected and never exhibited the same issues her late mother had suffered from.
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Ellie had come out during the season of 1817. Because of her birthday in January, unlike the rest of her sisters, she was not brought out during the Little season, and she had requested to delay her coming out a little—something Becca and Bennet agreed to with alacrity.
Towards the end of that first season, Ellie met Lord Wesley De Melville, Viscount Westmore, the heir to the Earl of Jersey. Ellie was approaching the age of nineteen, and he was seven and twenty. He had been sick and tired of all of the insipid debutantes and their families who attempted to attract his notice. Hence, when he met Ellie, who was not at all the same, but rather quite the opposite, there had been an instant attraction.
He had courted her assiduously. At first Ellie had been tepid towards him, but bit by bit he had won her heart. In February of 1818, some ten days after Ellie turned twenty, she accepted him, and they were married at the end of March that year.
Westmore, Wes’s estate, was in Warwickshire. Much to Becca’s delight, her youngest, when not in London, was less than a day away from Longbourn. Ellie delivered a son, named Cyril Thomas for his two grandfathers, in August of 1819. A second son had followed in December 1820, and Ellie suspected she was with child again.
The most important thing had been that, like all of her siblings, Ellie had made a love match.
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The last in her children’s generation of the extended family to marry was Ian. He had married his beloved, the daughter of a very well-off tradesman, in September of 1821. He had had his parents’ approbation for the match and his wife was everything they could have wanted for him in his viscountess. His wife was with child for the first time.
His sisters were long married—they happened to fall in love with twin brothers, sons of the Duke of Hertfordshire—and between them had six children.
Will, who was addressed as William when his father passed away and he ascended to the dukedom, and his duchess Marie, were very pleased when Rosemarie married Jamie Carrington, Viscount Hadlock, in 1813—they had three sons and Rosemarie was with child again, hoping for a daughter—and his son Will had married the daughter of an earl in 1815. Will had become the Marquess of Hartington when his father had become the next Duke of Devonshire. To date they had two daughters and a son, who in the tradition of the Cavendishes had been named William.
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Nothing was heard from Charles Bingley until he brought his family to visit the land of his birth in 1818. He had become a very successful industrialist in the fledgling United States of America. He, his wife, and three children were visiting London when they came across the Darcys strolling in Hyde Park.
The meeting was awkward, but became less so when Darcy saw how much his former friend had changed. The relationship thawed fully when Bingley had offered a full and sincere apology for his former behaviour. The Bingleys and the Hursts were invited to a dinner at Darcy House one evening before the former’s family was to depart England again. The latter had three children, a daughter and two sons. The daughter and second son had benefited greatly from the dowry, which used to belong to the late Caroline Bingley. Hurst invested it and half of his wife’s remaining original dowry with Edward Gardiner. Over the years the amount had practically tripled.
Miss Caroline Bingley, from what the Hursts had learnt, had lasted less than a year in New South Wales. She had evidently angered some local women with her airs and graces and had been found stabbed to death behind an ale hall.
The last remaining bad actor, William Collins, who no one thought about again once he had been committed to Bedlam, had lived for five years in his new home before pneumonia had claimed him.
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Becca looked at the group on the veranda; it had expanded as they had been joined by Mary and Richard, Lizzy and Liam, in addition to Maria and Henry. The rest of the extended family would arrive over the next few days. Regardless of their monetary wealth, this was the true riches her family had. Their children and those of the rest of the family, and the love they exuded within their immediate and extended family.
Yes, she had been the next Mrs Bennet, but Becca was fully cognisant that other than being thankful for Jane, Thomas had erased the harpy who had compromised him from his memories.
In all ways that counted, she was the first and only Mrs Bennet in Thomas’s eyes. Yes, God had been very good to them.
~~~The End~~~
PLEASE NOTE:
Following is a free copy of ‘Her Grace’ for you to enjoy. As my next one is ‘Her Grace Revisited’, which is not a rewrite of the original. Rather it is a new story using most of the same characters found in ‘Her Grace’ with different situations, direction, and characteristics.
It will be ready by the end of June 2025.